Sam Raimi’s “Send Help” is being billed as his return to the horror/thriller storytelling . It’s been many years since he’s directed a film within the genres that made him famous, and this return is coming to theaters in just a few weeks’ time.
Raimi has only directed two movies in the last twelve years—“Oz the Great and Powerful” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”—neither of which were in his wheelhouse or particularly alluring to his diehard fans. His actual last horror film was the deliciously twisted “Drag Me To Hell,” which I’m surprised to read had a PG-13 rating!
In fact, additionally taking into account the three “Spider-Man” movies Raimi helmed in the aughts, it’s hard to believe, but he hasn’t directed an R-rated movie in almost 26 years. That’s about to end on January 30, when “Send Help” hits theaters.
Yes, the MPA has announced its weekly batch of rated titles, and “Send Help” has received a much-welcome “R” for “strong/bloody violence and language.”
Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien star in “Send Help,” which follows a female employee and her irritating boss whose plane crashes on an island—with only the two of them making it out alive.
Last year, a source described the film as a gleefully demented morality tale pitting morally bankrupt characters against each other in a constant game of one-upmanship. Raimi “torments his leads, bathes them in fluids and blood, and dares the audience to keep caring.”
With a signature horror-comedy style that’s been imitated by many, Raimi’s influence cannot be understated—his best work includes “Army of Darkness,” “Evil Dead II,” “A Simple Plan,” “Darkman,” “Drag Me To Hell,” and “Spider-Man 2.” In Raimi, we trust, and it looks like he might have a winner here.
Scola has shot Michael Sarnoski’s three films — “Pig,” “A Quiet Place: Day One,” and “The Death of Robin Hood” — as well as the acclaimed indie “Sing Sing.”